BHGS Challenge 03

Well it wasn't a glorious victory, however, it was still a great competition.

Firstly many thanks to all those involved in the organisation and running of the event, whether they be the BHGS people or those from the Licensed Victuallers School who hosted the competition. Everything ran as smoothly as you could hope for and the bar and food was reasonably priced to boot. All in all it was an excellent venue that I look forward to going to again next year - well done to the BHGS for finding it.

My army choice this year was a return to the Late Imperial Romans, although one list was slightly tweaked from last years entry. Although I placed 14th at the IWF with the Dynastic Bedouins I've decided that I really needed to use something with a bit more punch to try and get more decisive results and allow me to play more agressivley as I reaslise that I've been playing too cautiously recently. So really my main aim for the weekend (in addition to winning or course <g>) was to play a more agressive game.

The two lists I used were as follows:

List 1 is the general purpose list with which I think I can fight most armies and would be the list I'd enter for a single list competition.

C-in-C: 7 Reg Ax(S) inc. general, 7 Reg Ps(O) supporting Ax, 3 Reg Kn(X), 4 Reg LH(O), 1 Reg LH(F), 6 Bg;
Sub: 1 Reg Cv(O) general, 4 Reg Kn(F), 2 Reg LH(O), 1 Reg LH(F), 4 Irr
LH(S), 5 Reg Ax(S), 5 Reg Ps(O) supporting Ax, 1 Irr Ax(I);
Sub: 5 Reg Bd(O) inc. general, 5 Reg Ps(O) suppoting Bd, 1 Reg Art(F), 4 Reg
Bw(O), 4 Reg LH(F), 2 Reg LH(I).

List 2 was designed to take on the army type that I think List 1 will have the most trouble with, heavy foot armies such as Leidang, LHG, Fanatic Berber, etc. This list was the same as last years version.

C-in-C: 8 Reg Ax(S) inc. general, 8 Reg Ps(O) supporting Ax, 1 Reg Art(F), 3
Reg Kn(X), 2 Reg LH(O), 2 Reg LH(F);
Sub: 6 Reg Bd(O) inc. general, 6 Reg Ps(O) supporting, 1 Reg Art(F), 3 Reg
Kn(X), 4 Reg LH(O), 1 Reg LH(F);
Sub: 6 Reg Bd(O) inc. general, 6 Reg Ps(O) supporting, 1 Reg Ps(S), 3 Reg
LH(F), 2 Reg LH(I), 4 Irr Ax(I), 2 Irr Bts(S), 6 Bg.

The venue was open on Friday for people to turn up early, have a practice game or two and socialise so I took the day off work and went along for the socialising as much as anything. In the afternoon I played a gentle practice game with Madeleine Hill who used Sub-Roman British - this allowed me to get List 2 on the table again as it hadn't seen any action against a suitable opponent since the 2002 IWF Championships. The game ended in a draw as we had spent time talking the game through and Simon Hall also chipped in with some good advice for Madeleine.

After this I had the priviledge of umpiring the test match between the UK and France. The French team got things off to a good start by providing a couple of cases of rather nice red wine for the participants and also the umpire - result! I have to say that this was the easiest piece of umpiring I've ever had to do, there cannot have been more than 5 rulings I had to make and they were all taken in good grace - I think this was a case of 12 good players who knew the rules and clarifications very well. For those who don't know the UK won 136 to 56, however, the French team certainly did not get the reward they deserved IMO and a score line more like 120 to 82 in favour of the UK would probably have been a much fairer result.

Saturday was an early start with the first of the 3 games starting at 9am - urg!

I drew a seed, Colin Sharpe, using Early Samurai. I choose the Bd heavy List 2 as this can take on any of the Samurai options of Bw heavy, Bd heavy or mixed. The dice mean that I invade with a strong wind blowing from my right hand corner at the Samurai and the potential of rain. I place a river but on my left rather than right so as to tempt Colin to think about a flank march there to potentially have the wind behind his archers; my thinking here is that I can skirmish a flank march out of the game with LH whilst clobbering the rest of the army, accepting the risk that if a flank march is Cv heavy and arrives quickly I may have a problem. Colin places 2 steep hills that land on the short side of the table accross the Rv, a Wd that lands beside the Rv in his deployment area and another Wd that lands in his right sector on the centre line. I assume that his army will be between the two Wd and from his right had Wd to the table edge and decide that a good old fashioned frontal attack is the way to go - a flank march not really being possible with my List 2. I deployed, from the right, C-in-C, Sub 1 and Sub 2 with the Bts on the Rv which was easy in my half of the table. Colin deployed his C-in-C's command of 1 Cv(O) general, 1 Exp(O), 8 Bd(F), 18 Ax(I) and 1 Bw(I) in the centre with a Wd to their left. His Sub-general's commands were identiacal at 8 Cv(O) inc. general, 10 Bw(S) and 18 Ax(I) and these wereplaced either side of the C-in-C with most of the Ax(I) in the Wds.

My plan was to attack his C-in-C, as the easiest command to break, with as many Bd as possible whilst keeping the wing commands honest with Art and Kn(X). Breaking the C-in-C would give me an 8-2 at the least and I could hope to either get a flank command or, more likely, Bg and other elements for the army. Colin hoped to fight pretty much where he deployed aiming to draw me in between the Wds and get flank attacks on my advancing line. With good initial PIPs I launched the army straight ahead as fast as possible and manoeuvred the Art to threaten Bw on the right, I also wheeled 3 Bd off the left command to contain any attempt by his right win Cv to attack my left hand command LH in any strength. Colin's initial PIPs were dreadful for his C-in-C's command (3 1's IIRC for the first 3 bounds) and in an attempt to keep both the Bd and Exp under control (the latter probably a mistake IMO - it was killed by Art in bound 3) he was forced to advance towards me. So in bound 4, with a good 2+ hours to play we had our Bd in contact just in his half of the table so the end of his line was just covered by the Wd (which had some Ax(I) in as well) - I had Ps and LH ready to cover gaps whilst Colin had his mass of Ax(I). The Bd combat starts off by going as expected with push backs occuring as the dice dictate but as I don't follow up and have 2 commands in contact with Reg PIPs I can keep my line intact and maximise the +5 vs +3 combats to my advantage and after about an hour of combats I've killed 5 Bd for no loss with plenty of time remaining. Then for the rest of the game I don't kill any more, lose a couple myself and have my Bd generals sticking in combat to cripple manoeuvre :-( With this stagnatingI have a stab at Colin's left had command with my C-in-C's Ax(S) trying to get something - I decided this was the command to go for as I'd taken out 3 Bw with the Art and the command was mostly unengaged unlike my left had command. All I get from this attack is some dead Ax and then time runs out. On my far left we have had a stand off between my supported Bd and Coiln's Cv and some minor skirmishing between my LH and a few more of his Cv. Annoyingly there have been no real opportunities to get the Kn(X) into combat. So having played something like 15/16 bounds of which 11/12 have combats in we end up with 16-16 much to our surprise as we were sure that something would happen. Despite that it was a good fun hard grinding game.

Game 2 drew me against Gareth Evans who used Medieval Portuguese in the usual 1385AD option. I've played Gareth once a year since I started competition gaming in 1999 and they've all been good fun games and Gareth is a really nice person (and an ever improving player I should add). I go for List 1. Despite his higher agression I invade with strong wind blowing along the table from my left. I choose the Rd and H(S) option and the H(S) that have an impact on the game all land in Gareth's right sector on his base edge thus securing his flank. Gareth then puts down a gentle hill + BUA on his left against the table edge and 2 patched of RGo the only important one lands in the middle of my right hand sector. I guess that Gareth will have all his army on table in his corner (although I don't think he'll corner sit despite my joking about this at his expense) and so deploy, from my right, C-in-C, Sub 2, Sub 1 with the army pretty much in the right hand 2/3 of the table. Gareth deployed, from my left, a Sub-generals command of 1 Kn(S) general, 5 Irr Kn(O) all dismounted as Bd(S), 8 Bw(O), 4 Sp(I) and 1 Hd(F) then his C-in-C of Reg Kn(S) gneral, 4 Irr Kn(S), 8 Bw(O), 2 LH(O), 1 Ax(O), 2 Ps(O) and 3 Hd(F) and lastly a sub-genral of Reg Kn(S) general, 6 Ax(O), 5 Ps(O), 3 Irr Kn(O), 2 LH(O) and 4 mtd Bw(S) - the Kn(O), LH(O) and Bw(S) in ambush behind the hill. His infantry and dismounted Kn command had it's flank against an H(S).

My plan was fairly obvious. I would send Ax and Ps to attack his right flank over the H(S) - as much to drain hius PIPs by needing to respond as anything) whilst falling back with LH before the expected Kn and Bw(S) advance from his left; when I felt that the Kn had been pretty much contained I would attack the Bw with my Bd. Kn(X) and (F) were to operate behind my LH to hopefully get onto Kn flanks or create flanks for LH to get onto if Gareth's heavier Kn tried to get at them. Gareth appeared to plan what I imagined with a push from his left to get round my right and turn my army onto a narrower frontage where he was heavier whilst keeping his right anchored. Again the plan seems to go as well as could be expected, with a bonus that the wind changes a couple of time to be directly behind me so that my Art isn't inconvenienced. My Ax race to the H(S) and start to threaten his right flank and cause PIP expenditure to manoeuvre Irr Bw and Bd/Kn to counter, meanwhile the LH fall back before his Kn and my Kn(F) come to be available to threaten the flank of his Kn(S); my C-inC's Ax end up in the small patch of RGo ooposite his advancing Kn(O) and Bw(S). For a good deal of the middle part of the game neither of us have very good PIPs and it all get's a bit cagey with neither of us in any real position to make a good attack without being suicidal. However, I whittle a few elements off his right hand command and when his Bw(S) come witrhin shooting range I can attack them with the Ax(S) and drive off their 2 supporting LH(O) with my LH killing one - I also pick up a Kn(O) who came to cover the flank of the Bw(S) but got too close to the RGo and ended up fighting my Ax who were in the RGo. Late in the game I finally have PIPs to get some of my Bd at some Bw from his C-in-C's command and manage to kill some quickly. In the end I have chances to brake any or all of Gareth's 3 commands during the final 3
or so bounds we play, however, things just didn't fall right with the combat dice and the game ended a draw. By having killed over 10% more of his army than I'd lost I got 17-15. I did feel a bit robbed on this one and Gareth agreed that he felt a bit luck not to have lost a command at least. However, again it was a good game and I'm looking forward to Campaign in May where I beleive Gareth and I are in the same pool and so shall play again (for the3rd year in a row at Campaign as well IIRC).

So 2 games in and I'm well and truly stuck in the "Mr Average" zone on 33 points despite my, and my opponents, best efforts. The third game pitched me up against Darryl Pearce and his Graeco-Indians, a quick word with Jer confirmed my suspicion that Darryl would be using a Kushan ally. This caused me a quick rethink on which list to use; my initial evaluation of the entries had suggested List 2 with the Graeco-Indian being foot heavy, but the addition of a Kushan ally made List 1 the better choice as there would be more for the better LH and the Kn(F) to do against such a version. I again invaded, but with no weather, and decided that the Rd + thin H(S) was the way to go to try and keep the battlefield as open as possible. Of the 5 H(S) placed only 2 had any effect and they landed in my left sector away from the table edge. Darryl went for 3 Wd (one compulsory), 1H(G) and 2 RGo. One Wd landed in the middle of my base edge, 1 in the centre of Darryl's central sector away from the edge and 1 that couldn't be placed. One RGo ended up on Darryl's left on the edge projecting in along the centre line and the hill was in the same place on his right but away from the edge, whilst the other RGo was in my centre sector. I deployed C-in-C on the left with H(S) on his left flank, Sub 2 in the centre and Sub 1 on the right where the most open ground was. Darryl deployed his Kushan ally of 5 Kn(X) inc. general opposite my Sub 2, his C-in-C of 1 Cv(O) general, 2 Cv(I), 1 Ps(O), 1 LH(F), 1 El(O), 5 Ax(S) and 6 Ax(X) opposite my centre with his Ax(S) in the central Wd and all the rest behind it. To their right was a Sub's command of 1 Cv(O) general, 2 LH(O), 1 LH(F), 3 Bw(X)/(O) DBE, 4 Bw(O) and 1 Ps(O) and then an almost identical command (it differed by have 2 LH(F) and 1 LH(O) instead) on his right partially in ambush behind the hill.

My plan was to attack the Kushan ally with my right hand command and the LH from the centre and then hopefully be able to use my Ax from that command through the central Wd combined with a Bd push from the centre towards the left, my left would really be the PIP dump but might hope to be able to use the H(S) as a route for the Ax. Darryl appeared to plan to push heavily with his right with his massed Bw. The whole execution of my plan was disrupted by a series of PIP dice in the first half of the game which were all 2 1's plus another number, so although my right did attack the other 2 commands were left sitting around doing nothing much. The attack on the right started well with my LH going through the RGo to get on the end of the allied LH(F) who were in a line with the Kn(X) so a flank attack took out 2 elements quickly. However, after this bright start it was slow going as the PIP dice problem kicked in and other commands sometimes needed the higher dice. Darryl moved his Ax(S) from the Wd into the RGo in my centre but my LH
killed 3 who were caught or pulled out of the RGo (it was a narrow strip). With his ally under attack Darryl moved the LH, Cv and El from his C-in-C around the central Wd to reinforce but this then started to cause him PIP problems due to line of sight for the general who eneded up moving like a yoyo. Meanwhile Darryl has got his bowmen into motion wheeling them towards my centre and left, but they mainly get to shoot at LH. Eventually pressure from my Ax and Kn(F) on the right expose the end of the Kn(X) line and when my Kn hit the end the ally general dies in a ZOD and the command fails to roll high enough on the next move. However, it is now too late for them to exploit this although I do try and catch the Cv(I) and El from the C-in-C (which would break that command as well) who are now there but Darryl has PIPs to keep them safe. Darryl's bowline gets quite a bit of shooting at my Bd and Ax but don't do very much and another bout of poor PIPs mean I cannot force my way into combat. So the game ended 20-12 to me. Another good game despite my PIPs being poor and so I could not push the attack as I wanted to (however, I should point out that as my combat/shooting dice were good my dice rolling was average accross the game).

Sunday morning arrived bright and clear and drew me against Nick Farrell - the London not NZ version. Now this was not what I wanted as Nick and I had played out a fairly dull game at the club a couple of weeks previously with the same armies, and we both felt that the same could be on the cards. Anyway, List 1 was the only way to go. I defended, which was a blow as I wanted to have the initiative of the attack, and when Nick placed nothing as invader I chose a Rd (compulsory) BUA, 3 H(S) and 2 RGo - neither of us noticed that this is an illegal terrain choice as the BUA and H(S) are all the same FE and going! That's Sunday mornings for you :-) The BUA went on the right and 2 of the hills and a RGo ended up there as well pretty much sealing off that flank. The other pieces ended up in Nick's half and had no effect. I deployed, from my right, the C-in-C, Sub 2 and Sub 1 on the open end of the table - in general LH up front the rest behind, apart from the Bw and Art who were up on the 18" line. Nick deployed a varient on the usual Patrician. His C-in-C was on my right and was 7 LH(S) inc. general, 3 LH(F), 6 Ax(S) and 6 supporting Ps(O), next to them was 4 LH(S) inc. sub-general, 2 LH(O), 1 LH(F), 4 Kn(F), 5 Ax(S) and 5 supporting Ps(O) and finally there was an identical command on his right. His Ax was all well back with the mounted up front.

My plan would rather depend on what Nick attacked with but it looked like a mounted attack so I expected to have to fall back and try and cause some pressure with my infantry coming up to the line. I would push my Bd line forward fairly agressively to try and be bait for one of the Kn blocks. Nick appears to have decided that a mounted attack was the way to go with an all out quick attack on my left with all the mounted of his 2 right hand commands with the C-in-C's LH covering the rest. So with the same sort of battle in mind we set to. One thing that went in my favour was that Nick only committed 2 Kn from his centre command to the main fight keeping 2 back as a threat to my centre. We quickly ended up with a long line in combat, initiated by Nick, which comprised of 7 LH and 4 Kn on my side and 6 LH and 5 Kn on his side, so I had 1 LH facing a Kn. I'd forced his other Kn in the area to be held back by pushing 2 supported Ax at the end of his line at an angle that would cause recoil problems. We both had 3/4 LH behind the main fight as supports. In the centre I had pushed my Bd forward and brought Kn(X) and LH from the C-in-C over towards the main fight arena and with Ax and LH from my centre and left hand command had a threat towards the side of the main fight - and troops able to intervene. The main clash was a typical lottery over about 4 bounds with the initiative and advantage swinging aftereach round of combats - it was real "balls in hand" stuff and losses all round, but mine off just one command. After this the initiative was definitely moving to Nick as I was 5.5 EE down on my left command whilst he was 3 down on both of his in combat. So it was time to go for some more risky shots to get the game back so it was 2 LH(F) into his Kn frontally with no overlaps and an Ax into the flank of a Kn with a support where he had no recoil with another Kn behind but if my Ax died it took out the element behind which was protecting the end of the Bd line - I won the lot taking out 4 Kn and picked up another LH to leave Nick's commands on 6 and 5 elements down with 6.5 breaks :-) So with it all a bit sweaty we keep at it, both looking to get commands and not pull away. Eventually Nick breaks my left hand command and I immediately break back taking out his central command, but his right is 6 elements down - but the troops I have facing it are broken. Nick now obviously pulls back what he can as his army is in danger but I have one last shot if I can double a LH(S) with a LH(F) on the very last roll of the game. It doesn't work :-( So we have a very hard fought 16-16 with my losses at 38% and Nick's at 45.5% and a really excellent game where we had both worried that it might be another dull draw.

The last game gave me a pretty much historical match up (is this allowed?) against Dave Marchant with a Western LIMP. Having heard Mad Egan's account of his game with Dave I did toy with the idea of List 2 to have a hard grind against the more defensive set up of the western army, but decided that List 1 was the correct choice. I invaded and knowing that Dave would want terrain to anchor his army on went for the Rd + H(S) strips to try and restrict where he could place. Most landed on my side and the only one that affected the game was in Dave's right sector. Dave went for RGo the only relevant piece of which went in his left hand sector on the centreline touching the edge. I deployed C-in-C on the right, Sub 2 in the centre and Sub 1 on the left (I nearly flank marched him on the right but decided against it). Dave deployed from my right his C-in-C of 3 Cv(O) inc. general, 6 Kn(F), 2 LH(F), 5 Ax(S), 5 supporting Ps(O) and 2 Ps(O) then his centre of 1 Cv(O) sub-general, 4 Bd(O), 2 supporting Ps(O), 5 Ax(S), 5 supporting Ps(O), 2 LH(F) and 5 LH(O), and finally his right of 1 Cv(O) sub-general, 2 LH(F), 5 LH(S). 7 Ax(S) and 7 supporting Ps(O). His army was deployed between the H(S) on his right and the his left table edge, for some reason he had nothing in the RGo on his left.

My plan was to attack on the right with the Ax(S) from the C-in-C and on the left with the Kn into his Ax plus my Ax onto the H(S) to threaten the flank whilst keeping his right wing LH tied down with mine. The centre Bd were to rumble forward to keep things honest whilst the Art and Bw were opposite the Kn. Dave, as far as I can tell, was happy to adopt a defensive posture and wait to see if there were any opportunities. Both of us had below average PIPs most of the game so the temp was quite slow and we didn't get any combats until over half way through the game. My Kn advanced towards his Ax but a single Ps that they had to clear out of the way first recoiled and then killed the end Kn allowing Dave a flank attack on the line with a LH - however, the Kn now in combat turned out to be a LH killer and fought his way out of this killing 2 LH and 1 Ax(S). At the same time encouraged by this Dave threw his 7 LH into my 7 LH for a lottery - this went my way killing 2 in the first contact, however, again PIPs let me down and I couldn't properly exploit this advantage. On the right my Ax went through the RGo but couldn't come out due to Dave's Kn in the area; Dave did attack me but suffered losses and pulled back and I lost 3 Ax trying to get his Cv in the open - so that flank pretty much ran into a stalemate. At the end of the game my remaining 2 Kn - the other having finally succumbed to double overlaps - got at his Ax and killed a couple but when the third Kn died it took off an overlap and a combat I would ahve won to take a command was instead a draw when the game ended. So again 16-16. A less good game, but not unenjoyable.

in the end my results were a disappointing 16-16, 17-15, 20-12, 16-16 and 16-16, however, 4 out of the 5 were extremely good games that could easily have had results. My final position was just above half way, 44th from 98.

So on reflection on a weekend where I was aiming to play more aggressively how did I end up with a result worse than I achieved with the less punchy Bedouins? As far as I can tell it was just that things didn't quite fall my way - not bad luck per se, just that the little breaks you need sometimes didn't happen. I am wary of blaming the dice as I think that if you are always blaming the dice you are hiding behind them and not looking at a fundamental weakness with your game. I think I _did_ play a more aggressive game so feel OK about that. So I'll go to the next comp and try and play the way I did last weekend and see what happens, and if it's another series of draws I'll re-evaluate again.